Piston ring groove cleaner



Aug. 3 1949.; w g; LAW

PISTONKING GROOVE CLEANER Filed May 17, 1948 Patented Aug. 30, i949 iTED STATES PIA-TJELN'1?1 oFFIc-E PISTON RING GROOVE CLEANER" William E. Law, Windsor, Calif. Application May 17, 1948, SerialNo. 27,474 J a toolof this kind by which the bottom and side' edges of the groove maybe-scraped in a single operation.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a piston ring groove scraping tool which is substantially self-adjusting, being so formed that the scraping blades are resiliently biased into scraping engagement With the piston within the piston ring grooves. V

A further object of this invention is to provide for the use of a single tool on cylinders of various sizes within the range of the, tool, the tool being engageable in the various sized" grooves of the Various sized pistonswithoutmechanical adjustment by the mechanic.

To the foregoing objects, and other which may hereinafter more fully appear, the invention consists of the novel construction, combinationand arrangement of parts, as will be more specifically referred to and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, but it is to be understood that changes, variations, and modifications may be resorted to which fall within the scope of the invention as claimed.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a top plan view of a piston ring groove scraping tool constructed according to an embodiment of this invention.

Figure 2 is a transverse section taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a side elevation Of the tool removed from the piston shown in Figure 1.

Referring to the drawing, the numeral H] designates generally an improved scraping tool for scraping and cleaning the piston ring grooves or pistons of automobiles and other combustion engines. The scraping tool of my invention is formed of a single length of fiat metal bent into a substantial U-shape to provide a handle II on which are supported scraping blades l2 and I l. The scraping blades l2 and M are fixed on one arm of the handle and a guide member I5 is fixed to or formed on an end of the other arm of the handle. The handle I I being U-shaped is formed with a pair of substantially parallel arms l6 and 2 Claims. (Cl. 15--104.01)

I! connecte together at one end'by a resilient bight portion] 8'. fThe resiliency of the connect ing bight'p0rtion=-biasesthe arms "16 and H to a substantially parallel rlatiori'ohe to the other. The arm to is formed'with anarcuate free end on which'a support or guide [Sis formed; The

scraping-blades l2 and l 4 are carried by the opposite arm" i'lf directly opposite from the guide member IQ for the pumps'esto'be described-hereina t 1/. 1n .;i. I .1

The arm I 1 is biiurcated along its length to providea pair of'fingers 2U and-ilfor supporting the" scraping ueues, fl 2 and t 4-,; The blades l2 and M arefixed -toorformeq on the free outer ends of the bifurcated arm ll and-maybe formedas an integral part ofthe fingers: The fin r 20 i and 2| are resiliently biased" to a dive'rgentrelation at the eiids thereof for urging 'apartfthe scraping'bladesJTand l4." one-er the fingers, as 2 o,.ext nds;beyonq the free e d or thefother finger 2 la'nd the scraping blade I2 is supported onthe lower side of "tlie'finger 203. The scraping blade l2-is thenoflset downwardly from theplane of the finger 20. The/scraping bladef [4 extends inwardly fromthe-side' edge of the finger 2 I" and is adapted tofbe di'sposed *in the same plane as the scrapin blade} 12 w e "the fingerSZU-and- 2 i are disposed in ari'overlying relation: The scraping blade I4 is adapted to follow directly behind the scraping blade l2 in certain positions of the fingers 20 and 2 l.

The guide member [9 is arcuate in configuration being fixed to or formed on the supporting member l5 and is in the same plane as the scraping blades 12 and I4 when they are disposed in an aligned position. As th scraping blade I2 is downwardly offset from the plane of the finger 20 to which it is attached, the scraping blade 14 may be disposed immediately behind the scraping blade I2 in the ofiset. The guide member 19 is substantially triangular in cross section so that it may be fitted into a piston ring groove of any size on the piston on which the tool [0 is being used.

The piston ring scraping tool [0 is formed in the manner described above so that it may be used for scraping the grooves of various sizes on the various sized pistons conventionally used in automobiles and other widely used automotive equipment. The pistons on the automobiles are provided with piston ring grooves of difierent widths for suporting the different piston rings as the oil scraping rings and the sealing rings. For this reason the expansible tool described above is provided for scraping all of the rings on any one piston. The scraping blades l2 and I4 are of a cross sectional thickness substantially the same as the smallest width of piston ring groove provided on the piston. As the piston ring grooves seldom vary more than twice the Width of the smallest groove the expansible scraper will fit into and cleanly scrape any of the grooves between the smallest width and the largest or double width.

In the use and operation of this piston ring groove scraping tool the guide member support I5 is spread away from the scraping blades I2 and I4 and the guide member 19 is disposed in one of the grooves of the piston P. The fingers 29 and 2| are then pressed together to dispose the scraper blades [2 and [4 in following relation and the scraper blades are then engaged in the piston ring groove opposite from the, guide IS. The resiliency of the fingers 20 and 2| will spread the scraper blades [2 and I4 apart so that one of them, as [2, will engage the upper surface of the groove and the other, as l4, will engage the lower surface of the groove and the inner edges of both of the blades will engage the bottom of the groove. The tool I0 may then be rotated relative to the piston P and the cutting edges of the blades will scrape the carbon and other deposits from the grooves. The extreme inner ends of the scraping blades I2 and M are inclined at an angle relative to the. length of the blades so that a cutting point is provided on each of the blades. This angular formation on the end of the blades provides a beveled edge as 22 so that the blades may be used for scraping the oil ring groove which is provided with openings through the walls of the piston. The cutting points of the blades will engage in the openings through the wall and at this time the. tool may be reversed in the direction of rotation for freeing the scraping blades so that these openings are not damaged and that no damage is caused to the terminal ends of the scraping blades. When the tool is used for the narrow grooves the scraping blades will be disposed in aligned position relative to each other so that a total width no greater than the width of the groove being operated upon is formed. Also, Where the grooves are relatively narrow, the scraping blades may be' engaged in adjacent grooves for scraping two grooves at one time.

I claim:

1. A piston ring groove scraping tool comprising a guide arm, a scraper arm, and means resiliently connecting said arms together, said scraper arm including a pair of resilient fingers diverging in a plane substantially perpendicular to the plane passing through said guide arm and said scraper, arm, one of said fingers being formed with an offset portion at the free end thereof adapted to overlie the free end of the other of said pair of fingers, and a pair of scraper blades secured to said offset portion and to said latter free end respectively whereby said pair of blades may be disposed in a piston groove in alignment 0 relative to each other.

2. A piston ring groove scraping tool comprising a guide arm having an arcuate guide memher secured on one end thereof, a scraper arm,

and means resiliently connecting said arms together, said scraper arm including a pair of resilient fingers diverging in a plane substantially perpendicular to the plane passing through said guide arm and said scraper arm, one of said fingers extending longitudinally beyond the other of said fingers and having an ofiset end portion adapted to overlie the free end of the other of said pair of fingers, and a pair of scraper blades carried by said offset portion and said free end respectively, said scraper blades being positioned equidistant from a radial line extending from said arcuate guide member whereby said pair of blades may be disposed in a piston groove in trailing alignment relative to each other.

WILLIAM E. LAW.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,645,435 Ling Oct. 11, 1927 1,654,851 Albert Jan. 3, 1928 1,768,692 Kaplan July 11, 1930 2,109,635 Ferris Mar. 1, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 697,780 Germany Oct. 23, 1940 

